The Quixotic Story of The Dark Night of the Soul of Santa Cruz Futebol Clube.

Wednesday, 5 September 2012

On Scepticism

Doleful old Greek sceptic Pyrrho
believed that nothing was inherently good or inherently evil, nor honourable or
dishonourable, but simply that things merely existed. On one occasion he even
went so far as to refuse to help a (presumably unimpressed) friend out of a
ditch, as that would involve passing judgement on the value of friend, ditch, fetid
ditch water, and so on. It doesn`t do, runs Pyrrho’s thinking, to interfere
with the general order of things in the great cosmic tapestry.

With this in mind, Pyrrho would
no doubt approve of Serie C of the Brasileirão. Serie C, at least for Santa Cruz Futebol Clube of Recife, is the
footballing equivalent of purgatory, of an overcast day that is neither hot nor
cold, of boiled potatoes, cabbage and ham for dinner. Lacking even the desperate
pathos of Serie D (and surely Santa
fans missed a trick by not adopting Man City’s “we’re not really here” anthem
during their time in the abyss), or the almost-there-now buoyancy of Serie B, Serie C is neither good nor
bad. It`s simply there.

Fittingly enough, Santa Cruz have
also been neither good nor bad this year, but have merely existed. The team is
competent enough for this level, occasionally oscillating towards the poor, notably
when losing to Fortaleza and Luverdense away from home, and drawing 0-0 against
Cuíaba, without ever really plumbing the depths. And Santa`s best moments, such
as the 6-1 thumping of Águia de Maraba at Arruda a week ago, or the equally
handsome 4-0 home victory over Icasa, also in Recife, have been undercut by the
feebleness of the opposition.

This sense of ennui is perhaps in keeping with the
work of Zé Teodoro. Zé Te Adoro, as
he was christened back in the heady days that followed the epic Campeonato Pernambucano win over Sport
back in May 2011, is something of a specialist in teams with all the
imaginative spark of a kitchen chair. Zé`s Santa, creatively speaking, do the
bare minimum, but still manage to win (or at least avoid defeat), most of the
time, through dint of sheer hard work and organisation.

That though, is what makes sense
at this level, which is why the continued campaigns to have Mr. Teodoro’s head
mounted on a spike somewhere on Avenida Beberibe make little sense. Yes, the
football produced by Santa is brutally functional at best, but surely, given
that this is the third tier of a very flawed Brasileirão, it was always going to be this way. See a Darkness has racked his brains and
consulted the Big Book of Football Records for mention of a truly memorable,
aesthetically pleasing Third Division campaign by any team, anywhere, and come
up with close to nothing. Division 3, Serie
C, call it what you will, is not a place that is particularly
suited to football as art. So are tricolor
expectations, demanding victories and tiki-taka
symphonies at the same time, unrealistically high?

Perhaps. Or maybe it`s all about
perspective. SAD first exchanged hot
glances across a crowded room with O Mais
Querido back in 2007 (his first game a handsome 2-0 win over Náutico at
Arruda, both goals courtesy of Marcelo Ramos). Santa finished the estadual that year in 7th,
behind such three-men-and-a-dog luminaries as Vera Cruz and Porto, and a few
months later, were relegated to Serie C of
the Brasileirão.

The year after
brought more Pernambucano pain
(another 7th place finish, behind Ypiranga and Serrano, no less),
and relegation to Serie D. The misery
continued for the next two years as Santa failed to escape from Serie D and finished a distant 3rd
behind Recife B and Recife Jr in the Pernambucano.

In short, it`s been the
footballing equivalent of very thin gruel. As a result SAD’s expectations are lower than standards of customer care at a
Brazilian telecommunications company, or in other words, very, very low indeed.
Perhaps if hehad been around a bit
longer and seen some of the great Santa teams of the past, such as the 1975
side that reached the semi-finals of the Brasileirão,
eliminating Palmeiras and Flamengo along the way, or even the team that stormed
back into Serie A in 2005, he might
understand better the rage of those screaming for Zé Teodoro’s blood to be spilt.

Thinking back, in SAD`s more than five years of supporting
Santa Cruz, the team that has come closest to playing entertaining football (and
this gives an idea as to how bad it`s been) was perhaps Dado Cavalcanti`s 2010
side, with the elegant Léo at volante, creaky-legged
veteran Jackson and Elvis pulling the strings in midfield, and Brasão splashing
around up front. And that team couldn`t make it out of Serie D.

Zé Teodoro is not as bright or
open a coach as young Mr. Cavalcanti (now doing well at Serie C Paraguayan horse Luverdense), but he might just be a more
efficient one. A love of efficiency rather than beauty, after all, is surely
the only explanation for the repeated presence of the lumbering Chicão in the
Santa midfield. Elsewhere, this Santa team is a mix of the good (Denis Marques,
William, Memo, maybe Leandro Oliveira and Leozinho), the bad (goalkeeper Fred,
who when handling the ball strongly resembles a man fighting off bees*), and
the ugly (Fabricio Ceará, who might be a tub-thumping striker, but is unlikely
to attract a new generation of female admirers to Arruda).

That has been good enough in the
past, and is probably not much more than can be expected for Santa`s reduced
present. Whether it is enough to reach the (relatively speaking) promised land
of Serie B remains to be seen.

* This line stolen from the lyrical pen of Roger Angell. The photo shows players from Santa's 1957 Campeonato Pernambucano winning team, and is taken from the excellent Memorias do Santa Cruz site.